WJ Dijkstra
Willem Jacob "WJ" Dijkstra is a prominent roboteer from The Netherlands who competed in the UK and Dutch versions of Robot Wars. He is best known for Gravity, a series of robots with pneumatic flippers, the third version of which reached the top eight in Series 7. They were sequentially numbered 1-5, although during their televised appearances, they were simply referred to as Gravity. Teams WJ was the captain of Team Mad Science (also known as Mad Science Robotics or Team Madmen) and worked with fellow Dutch roboteer Greg Cathalina and Flemish roboteers Mario "Maddox" de Jongh and Babeth van Son to build and enter Project One into Dutch Series 1 (although Babeth did not appear on TV with Team Madmen because of the three team members limit, Team Flextreme accepted her as the third member, a practice not uncommon with the Dutch/Belgian roboteers). Because it proved difficult for team members based in the Netherlands and Belgium to come together to work on building robots, the two parts of the team decided to work on separate projects for Dutch Series 2 (although the two parts of the team still came together to provide components for each other's new robots). As a result, WJ temporarily split from the other team members, electing to built the rest of his robots mostly on his own, including all versions of Gravity and Elevation, his third of the clusterbot √3. However, WJ did invite his √3 teammates, Jeroen van Lieverloo (Impact) and Alexander Russchen (ODT-Zero), to become part of his UK Series 7 entry, as neither van Lieverloo or Russchen had their own robots ready in time. He also sold a spot on his team for Dutch Series 2 on a public forum, which was won by Mark Nievelstein. Despite Gravity having been sold on to Team Tie-Rip, Gravity's current owner invited WJ Dijkstra and Alexander Russchen to rejoin the Gravity team for Series 8 of Robot Wars, with Dijkstra driving the robot. However, their application was unsuccessful. History Dutch Series 1 Team Mad Science initially entered Dutch Series 1 with Project One. Although favoured to win its heat, it broke down and lost in the first round to Blue. Dutch Series 2 WJ built two different robots for Dutch Series 2. His main project was Gravity 1, a simple box-wedge with a full-pressure flipper, which suffered from issues with a leaky hydraulic valve. WJ also built Elevation, one third of the three-part clusterbot, √3, which he drove during his role in the latter's team. Despite having just three weeks and no one to assist him, WJ completed both robots in time for Dutch Series 2. Both robots performed reasonably well, reaching the Heat Final stage in their respective heats. After Dutch Robot Wars had finished, a robotics exhibition was held in The Netherlands, with many of the roboteers from the UK Robot Wars in attendance. One such person was Mike Lambert, who had brought along his robot Dantomkia, took it apart and showcased its internal workings. WJ built a new version of Gravity, based on the mechanics of Dantomkia, which competed in live events around The Netherlands as Gravity 2. WJ intended to use Gravity 2 in a prospective third series of Dutch Robot Wars, although this series would not be commissioned by BNN. UK Series 7 WJ stripped down Gravity 2, and converted it into Gravity 3, for entry into Robot Wars: The Seventh Wars. This version was the most successful of the two to compete in televised competition, featuring a powerful flipper with an innovative pneumatic system, and regularly capable of throwing opponents high into the air and out of the arena. Gravity 3 enjoyed considerable success in Series 7, defeating the seeded 13 Black and its inspiration Dantomkia to reach the second round of the Semi-Finals in that series. In addition, it also flipped Shunt, Dead Metal, Cassius Chrome and Growler, marking the only occasions where the latter two House Robots were flipped by a competitor during the show's history. Post Robot Wars After Series 7, Dijkstra sold Gravity 3 to Marco van Hek of Team VHS Robots, and built a new version of Gravity - Gravity 4. Although it was not as powerful as it predecessor, it cost less to build and maintain, and was designed to meet the safety requirements imposed by the live events. This new version of Gravity was a basic box-wedge robot with a flipper arm, similar to Gravity 1, built in only 24 hours and featuring a body made out of wood. Gravity 4 was only used in two live events before being retired. After that, Dijkstra built Gravity 4.5 from scratch; a black robot with a blue flipping arm and a design similar to that of Scraptosaur. It too had a very brief lifespan, appearing in just one event before Dijkstra began work on Gravity 5. The latest version of Gravity - Gravity 5.2 - has been sold to Team Tie-Rip, who currently compete with the robot on the live circuit, despite not being selected for the televised series. Robots ProjectOne.jpg|Project One V3.JPG|√3 Gravity1.JPG|Gravity 1 Gravity2.jpg|Gravity 2 at a live event Gravity.png|Gravity 3 HadesLarge.png|Gravity 3 after being sold to Team VHS and renamed Hades 2 Hadesnow.jpg|Team VHS' Hades 2 now Gravity_4.jpg|Gravity 4 Gravity_4.5.JPG|Gravity 4.5 Gravity.gif|Gravity 5.1 before being sold to Team Tie-Rip Gravity 5.1.jpg|Gravity after being sold to Team Tie-Rip Gravity_5.2.png|The rebuilt Gravity 5.2 at Guildford 2012 Hades Jr..jpg|Hades Jr., the featherweight Hades Wins/Losses *UK Wins: 5 *UK Losses: 2 *Dutch Wins: 4 *Dutch Losses: 4 Series Record UK Series Dutch Series Trivia *In 2007, the third incarnation of WJ Dijkstra's Gravity received an Honorable Mention in The Combat Robot Hall of Fame, due to its powerful and influential flipper.http://runamok.tech/hall_of_fame.html Honours References External links *Gallery of WJ Dijkstra's robots Category:Roboteers Category:Team Pages Category:Teams who entered the same series with more than one robot